The Initialization : Phase 005

Ahh, finally we get to the point. Aizen thought blankly as he listened intently to Zenix's words.

"You see, rather than waste the lives away of you inmates being locked up in a cell most of the time, we figured that its more productive if you guys were to dive into NOIZ instead. That way, we can solve the budget crisis of the prison and our issues as well."

"I see, so basically, it's a win/win situation for everyone. In exchange for working as villains, we can be partially free within NOIZ while on the other spectrum, you alleviate the food shortages since were gonna be on IV drops most of the time plus since were unconscious as well, you also solved the violence happening within the cells."

Zenix only smirked at his deductions.

"Correct. Furthermore, if by some chance you got into the top 100 best players rankings, then we will compensate you for every rank you get into. The same goes to if you get a political position within the game and win kingdom raids or participate in race wars."

Aizen lopsidedly grinned.

"Well it's better than just sitting around and doing nothing i guess. Though, can't you just program some a.i to become a villain? it seems way more easier to manage than letting some criminals run amok in your game."

Zenix nodded as if expecting this question already. "Well we do designed some NPC to be mob villains but isn't it more exciting if the enemy boss is a player as well rather than some data? it'll be more unpredictable and thrilling."

"Well i guess you have a point." Aizen answered while nodding. "It's more fun to beat up real guys than scarecrows or training dummies, fumu"

Zenix sweat-dropped, unable to comprehend Aizen's metaphor. He motioned for an empty virtuodrive within the left side corner of the room for the teen to sit on while they wait for the nurse that will put an IV drop on him.

"Now let me explain the procedures," Zenix started as he gave a piece of written contract paper to the sitting teen. "Sign this so that you are consenting to the procedure and was willing to partake by your own volition and no one has forced you to."

"Basically, its just some BS contract that wouldn't let me sue you guys arses if ever some shit hits the fan right?" Aizen colorfully commented while inspecting the paper several times. He was particularly cautious whenever he was signing anything because of his experiences in the past. Though, after finding no faulty clause to his disadvantage, the teen finally put his signature and thumb mark on it.

"Good now, kindly lie down while miss lovely here will prick you and puts you on drip." The older guy cheerily said as he made way for the nurse to swat over to Aizen.

"I won't always be on IV right miss pretty?" Aizen smoothly teased in which makes the nurses check partially flushed. Truth be told Aizen isn't that much totally handsome. If you put it on a scale of ten, he would most likely be around six to eight depending on the angle of light hitting his face. But perhaps because he got this certain mysterious aura within him that those cheesy lines somehow got an effect on women whenever he says it.

"Ah no Mr. Ryumanagi, seventy two hours is the maximum time allowed for each inmate to be on drip." The Nurse explained as she prepares the needle and the IV to be put on Aizen. "Afterwards you have a grace period of twenty four hours until you can be injected again and dive."

"I see, three days huh." The teen flexed his arms a couple of times before sliding it to the nurse. She unfastened the needle from it's pack then carefully pointed it on Aizen's upper wrist section.

"Ready?" She kindly asked with a calm voice.

Casanova wannabe only partly smirked in respond. "Just don't make it too painful and bloody, sadly I'm still a virgin for these kinds of things so please take care of me."

That earned him another blush and giggle from the nurse.

"Uhh, I hate to ruin your flirting and all but I have to explain something before you dive into NOIZ, Zen-kun." Zenix coughed as he gets their attention. Aizen just clicked his tongue while the embarrassed nurse proceed into putting the IV into his arm.

"Just as you know, you can practically do anything in NOIZ. That being said, while it may hold true on some aspects there are still things that are banned there. Such things will be explained in the introductory course of the game so don't skip it." Zenix emphasized on the word skip since he got a premonition that this black haired teen would just do so and proceed without knowing anything.

"After the introductory course, you would then be able to pick your tribe and customize your avatar, allocate your starter stats then finally your starting town."

Zenix then folded his arms.

"Now this is where things derived from the default procedure. These gaming pods here has a special option in picking your starting town."

Aizen tilted his head while the nurse finished connecting the IV and hanged it into a poll beside the pod.

"What special option?"

Zenix only grinned and commented happily. "These pods has only one option for starting town and that is Genosia the hidden town for red players~ lucky aren't you, getting special privileges right off the bat."

"Fuck you, special privileges my arse!" Aizen inwardly cursed. it was more like a penalty since he was starting in a town full of fucking murderers and swindlers everywhere. "Damn are you serious? it's like putting a newborn cub in a lake full of crocodiles."

Zenix only smiled further at his outburst. Oh how much he love his job. Every inmate that's within this floor that is using the virtuodrive had the same kind of reaction.

"Furthermore, the penitentiary has imposed a rule to max out the pain coefficient of criminals who partakes into our endeavor. Their reason was you inmates are here in this prison to serve for your crimes not enjoy the life behind bars."

"D-Does it mean that i will feel the exact pain i would receive in real life when i get hurt in Noiz?"

Zenix nodded. "That's the gist of it."

The teens face turned blue.

Maxed pain coefficient.

Doesn't that mean he would really feel the actual real painful feeling of being burned by a fire spell or being stab by a sword in the stomach? Somehow playing this game now feels more like a torture than enjoyment anymore.

Aizen's look just put a smile on the face of the sadistic glassed man. It just never gets old, now to finally drop the final bomb.

"Oh that's not all, well technically since your supposed to be well–jailed, Noiz is now your personal cell so you cannot log out by your own volition. You will see a timer instead at the log-out screen. that number indicates how much time left you had until you can finally dive out. Only once it hits zero that you can finally return to real life."

"........"

"Don't worry were not that heartless, at most each inmate can finally dive off after playing three consecutive days which is probably a week in Noiz time."

"....."

"Oh yeah! New players that starts at Genosia are banned from leaving the town for the first three months game time. You can only explore the whole world of Noiz after three months."

"...."

Aizen's reaction? Totally priceless.

If looks could kill, the damn neural engineer might already be rotting six feet under by now.

"Now don't look at me like that or i might fall in love with you Zen-kyun tee-hee~" Zenix jokingly bumped his head and pulled his tongue out.

Then all hell break loose.

Successive chains of profanities and bloody curses echoed all throughout B5 while Zenix hide in his office while he awaits for his latest test subject to calm down.

"You l*****y f**k of a s**t retard! are you f***king with me!? A**hole get your damnable '-₹44-₹%8exjfjridu!!?"

Looking upwards to the pristine ceiling of his office, Zenix let out a triumphant sigh.

"God i so love my job."

Carefully placing the virtuodrive helmet on his head, the skeptical teen eyed the lab coated guy beside him one last time.

"This wouldn't hurt now would it?" Aizen asked as he entered to the gaming pod and lied to the reclining chair inside.

"You may feel a sudden nausea being it your first dive but you'll gradually get used to it." The older guy explained, pushing some buttons in the interface of the pod.

"NOIZ uses a real time direct systematic neural conversion and interception of wavelength and process it in the virtual body host via shared conscious and subconscious data path through the latest 7G LTE wireless link so there might be some little discrepancies in virtual and actual timeline but it really depends on your preferred calibration of the system to transmit binary data into the mainframe of your connectome."

Aizen just stared at him as if he grew another head.

"I don't know what the hell you just said." He stated rather blatantly. "I'm not even sure you've spoken in english."

"Uhh sorry, 'Techglish' is my mother tongue so yeah." Zenix scratched his head as he think of a way to simplify his explanation.

"Basically, NOIZ uses both the conscious and subconscious part of your brain together and because of that, we can fully used 70% of brains capacity to process information. However, that creates discrepancies in the real world timeline since the amount of time you spend in NOIZ is speedup. For example, on default calibration, one minute in the real world amounts to forty second in the NOIZ. Under extreme settings you could even multiply a second to a hundred in NOIZ but the system doesn't allow that."

"Why's that, isn't it more convenient?"

The older man sighed, adjusting his glasses. "It would shorten your brains lifespan. Constant use of both consciousness together fully would drastically weaken your neural cells and would led to further complications in the long run. You don't want to be senile or suffer from dementia at the age of thirty now would you? "

Aizen just shrugged his shoulders in acknowledgement. point taken.

"At most what the system allows is a speed up to .03 faster than the default settings. but that already would put much strain in ones brain so you may feel more easily tired if you play with that calibration."

"Oh, how come it's just 0.03 second difference."

The lab coated guy snorted at the teens naivete. what a plebeian.

"Raising your arm would be 0.3 faster. turning your head would be 0.3 swifter. Your every move would be 0.03 times faster. 0.03 may sound nothing but if you added all that in the long run then you will save lots of time. plus your reaction speed would be more keen." Zenix explained to the teen like a teacher teaching a student fundamental math. "The downside is you can only dive up to 48 hours straight."

Aizen sighed. He haven't yet started playing and it's already giving him a vertigo. He's starting to have second doubts on his decision.

"Well whatever, i don't know a jackshit about calibrations and whatnots so i leave that to you."

Zenix smiled as he started pressing some buttons on the pod that Aizen can't see.

"Lastly fill up these and create your account." The older guy said as he reclined to give Aizen a view of the LCD panel.

"There, done." The teen said after setting up his account.

"Are you ready to start your adventure oh chosen one?" He asked with a dramatic flair of gestures as the machine whirred in existence. Aizen felt the pod vibrate a little as he felt rather sleepy and his body go numb. As his consciousness fades away the last thing he remembers before plunging into the void is Zenix's voice saying,

"Welcome to NOIZ."